2. Firstly… After having decided what my theme and issue was I conducted research into it e.g. symptoms, personal situations, suicide rates, etc. Due to having found personal diary recordings on YouTube of people entailing their experience with suffering depression, I was able to find information on this psychological condition that was both factual and emotional.
3. Secondly… I began research into professional media. Looking at institutions that would be able to distribute my product for example ‘shooting people’ and ‘cinema 16.’ Also looking at where I can make my product available to the audience through the internet e.g. Vimeo, YouTube, etc.
4. Thirdly… I sent out questionnaires to people through the social networking site, ‘Facebook.’ Distributing the questionnaires through Facebook allowed me to send them off more efficiently and to have a digital copy of the results. Also I can send the questionnaire to how many people I want through just one message, so it saves a lot of time.
5. These are the questions… 1)How old are you?2)What area do you live in?3)How would you describe your area?4)How often do you watch films?5)Where is it that you watch most of your films?6)What is your favourite genre of film?7)Do you enjoy watching short films?8)Do you have a favourite short film?9)What connotation does the term ‘short film’ conjure?10)How long do you think a short film should be, in order for it to have an effect on the audience?11)Do you know of the social realism genre?12)If so how would you define it and if not what do you think this genre consists of?13)Have you ever seen a social realism film? (Films such as Adulthood, Kidulthood, This is England.)14)How would you define depression?15)What do you think are the symptoms of depression?16)Do you think there is a place in the market for short films revolving around teenage depression?17)Would you at all be interested in watching a short film, revolving around a girl with depression?18)Have you ever had any experience with depression personally or do you know others who have?19)Have you seen the issue of depression addressed in different areas of the media? If so how has it been addressed?20)Have you any films/shows which represent and explore the issue of depression? If so, was the representation successful?21)If a friend/family member was diagnosed with depression, do you think your relationship with that person would change? If so how?22)In a film setting out to represent and explore the issue of depression, what do you think are important things for the filmmaker to pay attention to?
6. The results… These results helped me in the making of the film as I was getting information directly from the audience themselves. These results assured me that, I was creating a product that would have legitimate theme and issues. Everyone answered the questions with sufficient detail and gave me an insight to my target audience.
7. What I have learned… Overall I have learned a great deal from my audience, it was important to take the step of conducting this research, as target audience research benefits the director and writer. Besides the audience research I developed my understanding of the film industry, learning it’s history and how to effectively break into it with a film product.
